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Archive for May, 2013
Australia: 400 native species in danger
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Andrew Darby on May 26th, 2013
Sydney Morning Herald: The emu-wren, with its delicate filagreed tail, would go. So too would the master of disguise, the ground parrot - victims of increased fire in Australia's south-east.
And the palm cockatoo could disappear from its tropical toehold.
They are among 396 native birds likely to suffer as a result of climate change, according to the first analysis of global warming's effects on Australian birds.
Of 1232 Australian bird species and subspecies, one-quarter would do badly when exposed to the effects...
Climate change drowning ‘Venice of Africa’
Posted by Times: None Given on May 26th, 2013
Times: He had kept his two wives and many of his 16 children with him long after the neighbours had fled, in the vain hope that his once-bustling, tenacious west African village could survive the remorseless advance of the Atlantic Ocean.
"My house used to be two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the sea. I could grow things here because there was fresh water which came from the river," Diagne said, surveying a stretch of wet sand and rubble which, until last year, had been his living room.
Doun Babe Dieye,...
Arkansas quake swarms rattle nerves, raise questions
Posted by CNN: Alan Duke on May 26th, 2013
CNN: Three dozen earthquakes over the past week in central Arkansas shook shelves, rattled nerves and prompted speculation about their cause.
"Are they being being triggered or are they natural? That's something we don't know," Arkansas Geological Survey scientist Scott Ausbrook said Sunday.
The chances of so many temblors in the region in such a short time are "Powerball kind of odds," Ausbrook said. "What was unusual was to have four different areas in the state to be active in the same week."...
Fracking: How risky for us?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 26th, 2013
LA Times: California is believed to have more than 15 billion barrels of oil locked within the rocks under the Central Valley that might be used to feed the nation's energy hunger -- if oil companies can free it with hydraulic fracturing. Fracking, as the practice is popularly called, has been going on in the state for years, but mostly in a remote oil field in Kern County. The prospect of extensive new fracking efforts in the 1,750-square-mile geological formation known as the Monterey Shale, which extends...
Climate change threatening future life
Posted by The Nation: Saul Landau on May 26th, 2013
The Nation: Climate change seems to have exacerbated the stupidity of US daily life, or maybe we’ve long suffered from the consequences of the capitalist mode of production, plus the negative spin offs from the massive US war machine. Both systems feed off nature, which cannot sustain their demands on it. For example, both systems emit huge amounts of carbon dioxide, the most significant greenhouse gas that gets burned in production and war, and gets pumped into the atmosphere by fossil fuel burning and other...
Severe weather partly a result of climate change
Posted by NBC: None Given on May 25th, 2013
NBC: Damaging tornadoes are an annual springtime threat in parts of the country, but Monday’s massive storm in Oklahoma, in a year that seems to have had more than its share of extreme weather, has many wondering whether things have gotten even more extreme than usual. NBC’s John Yang reports.
Pakistan: With climate change, villagers become strangers in their own land
Posted by International Herald Tribune: Ali Ousat on May 25th, 2013
International Herald Tribune: When Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai first said that a time would come when the fishing community would dwell along the mighty Indus River but still die of hunger, it was merely a couplet.
Today fishermen living in one of the hundreds of villages in the Indus Delta have truly understood what the great saint meant to say.
Nearly three hundred families living in Kharo Chan village - which in Sindhi language means ‘bitter jetty’ -- have bitter memories to share. Allah Din, a farmer, said, “There was...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Pakistan: With climate change, villagers become strangers in their own landUK Emissions Must Be Halved By 2030, Says Davey
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 25th, 2013
Huffington Post: Europe should commit to a tough new target to halve emissions by 2030, Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey has said.
The Lib Dem Cabinet minister said the goal was ambitious but achievable as the Government set out its position ahead of efforts to secure a new international deal in 2015 on tackling global warming.
But the UK will oppose a European Union wide renewable energy target because it is "inflexible and unnecessary," he added.
Europe should commit to a tough new target to halve emissions...
Democratic Republic of Congo: Congo Waits on Funding for Largest Hydropower Project
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 25th, 2013
Guardian: The dream of harnessing the mighty Congo with the world's largest set of dams has moved closer, with the World Bank and other financial institutions expected to offer finance and South Africa agreeing to buy half of the power generated.
In the past 60 years French, Belgian, Chinese, Brazilian and African engineers have all hoped to dam the river.
But decades of civil war, corruption, and the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) reputation as a failed state have limited the hydropower developments...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Democratic Republic of Congo: Congo Waits on Funding for Largest Hydropower ProjectAmericans having their say on divisive Keystone pipeline plan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 25th, 2013
CNN: Jobs, say hundreds of thousands of people. Pollution, say hundreds of thousands of others.
They say that's what a proposed oil pipeline would bring into the country, as it transports crude from massive deposits in Canadian tar sands to refineries and ports in the United States.
The Keystone XL pipeline has triggered a gush of comments from Americans for and against its construction. The State Department in Washington has received 1.2 million since early March, when it came out in support of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Americans having their say on divisive Keystone pipeline plan